Wiring loom #1 - mostly engine loom

First real work on the wiring loom;

The rear loom is waiting for me to be in the mood to get under the car and fit the rear lights, the chassis & engine loom are standard GBS looms so simply plug together - however: I want to end up with a reasonably neat job & its taken a while for me to be in the right frame of mind to have a go.

The smiths oil pressure sender comes with its own fly-lead which is joined into a white connector:

The fixed point is the fuel rail lines; I'm running the intake side loom along the inside of the chassis tube, along with the alternator feed line. Many of the branches to TPS, Oil senders & Air temperature are over generous so need looping back on themselves to avoid any loose ends while leaving enough slack for the engine to move a little.

This is a dark picture, but I had to drop the fuel lines down a little on the left to give room for the loom:

HP Fuel pump cables come with push on ends, they are replaced with the keyed eyelets. I soldered them on and crushed them to make doubly sure.
    Brown line is ground and the larger eyelet,
    Grey line is +ve and the smaller eyelet.

This is the engine loom coming across the chassis, and back up where it will emerge behind the scuttle. I need to make sure the scuttle base is removable to provide access to this later on. On the top left the plug to the coil pack will not go on with the water pipe in place so I had to loosen the coil pack to install it.

Hindsight - this routing will sit right under the normally permanent battery tray with no access - I either need to make the flat tray accessible, or move it to the chassis cross member just behind.

2x Water temperature senders, I think its one for the gauges & 1 for the ECU. Many of these lines also seem to have short sheathing which I enhanced with electrical tape.

The GBS loom is completely labeled, which is great for assembly but looks a little like 'thunderbirds are go' once in place - I'm not sure yet if the labels are staying.

Nearside looking forwards, everything is just laid out for now; starting to get the battery/starter motor lines in place & bring the chassis loom forward:

Lots of effort, and very little to show for it - i.e. when its right its not that visible... its a start though!

Fuel Regulator vacuum line

I'm using my own IACV mount so have a spare vacuum connector on the plenum - a little 5mm nylon pipe to the right length into the fuel pressure regulator:

I dont think the vacuum compensation is a must have; its also probably highly dependent on the plenum design and designed for the OEM intake manifold - I can't see any harm in connecting it though.

Reversing & Fog Lamp modification

I'm waiting for some heat shrink sleave before I fix the loom into place; so next job is a small but fiddly one.

The Reversing & Fog lamp bodies need adjusting to sit vertically on the rear panel which slopes inwards slightly. I believe only the Fog lamp is checked at IVA, but it makes sense to have both the same. The bodies need to sit 8mm out at the top to sit correctly, however I don't think you can just take a slice off the back since the reflector uses the entire depth of the case.

Therefore I ended up rebating the bottom half of the back 4mm and packing out the top half 4mm to give the same angle:

Dremel @ 15k rpm & a plastic cutting disc to cut the bottom edge back:

Then I used the wider trim around the top edge. The curved ends again cut with the Dremel & the sides need sanding & cutting back a little to give a straight edge:

Before starting the second I double checked which way up it goes. The pre-drilled loom holes in the back panel are inboard of each fitting, they must line up with the holes in each lamp case, meaning one sits upside down:

I think it looks ok & ready to fit.

Pedal grip

Simple 10 minute job before Sunday lunch, I cut out and glued on the brake & clutch pedal grip with EvoStick. I used a paper pattern impressed on the pedal to get the right shape then transferred it to the grip paper & cut out before glueing in place:

Clutch cable

The clutch cable hits the plenum whichever way it is routed. This position looks possible - i.e. for straightest line route for the main cable and square as the inner cable emerges and goes through to the pedal.

The bracket is not quite at the correct angle though, so the clutch end 'flange' doesn't sit square against it. I can't bend the bracket, but I may be able to make an offset washer to tidy this up a little.

Needs a little more playing...

The flange is 30mm outside diameter, 14mm inside. Either some pipe - which doesn't seem to come with thick enough walls, or some aluminium bar to turn/drill a hole through might be possible.

Adjusting the bracket

The bracket will actually bend - I just needed a couple of metal offcuts to prevent marking the powder coat and a large adjustable spanner to carefully change its position and let the clutch cable flange sit square against it.

Routing

I'm also offering up clutch cable, HP fuel lines & engine loom at the same time to work out the best way for them to co-exist in this area. Ideally I want to run the fuel & loom on one side of the chassis tube and clutch cable the other - the clutch cable will flex in use & this way it would avoid any chance of it rubbing/chaffing on the other services.

Engine side of the round chassis tube:
    Top - Engine loom
    Bottom - Fuel lines

Other side of the round chassis tube:
   Clutch cable

Plenum - install

Air Sensor

Final jobs on the plenum to install - first the air temp sensor, I used a little instant gasket to make sure it has a good seal:

Gasket

I cut out a gasket for the plenum, I'm not really sure if this is necessary or not - the plenum mounts on the remains of the OEM air intake which is plastic, so some sort of union between the two would seem like a good idea (also saw Simon Bradley used one on his blog). Removed and cleaned up the intake hole cut outs after this picture:

Note; My installation suffered from air leaks once running; this gasket was re-visited and re-installed with instant gasket either side to ensure an air tight seal against the plastic adaptor.

Ready to install

All set:

I checked the length of the GBS supplied bolts which replace the OEM ones by winding into the blind holes (see general paranoia about winding things in too far and damaging the casting); all good - simply bolts on to the plastic adaptor which holds the fuel rail and injectors. The fuel rail had to come off to allow access to all the plenum mounting bolts. The IACV is sitting in just the right place to let its plug & loom miss the two chassis rails:

Reinstalled the fuel rail

With hindsight, its a good idea to get some of the engine loom in place - especially the injector loom before putting the fuel rail back on. Its not impossible with everything in place, just more tricky.

Close up of the 'busy' end of the fuel rail - my modified fuel inlet pipe, the plenum vacuum pipe & the engine loom socket all in close proximity, just out of shot is the cam cover breather pipe too. There's quite a dint in that fuel line pipe where I bent it into a different direction - I'm hoping its ok - I'm also hedging my bets by obtaining another fuel rail pipe as a backup incase I decide to re-work this area.

Intake & Plenum prep

Clearance

Next up is the plenum, High Pressure fuel lines to the fuel rail & intake side loom. There is no clear part to go first so I spent some time checking clearances & positions of various items before anything is fixed:

Bonnet on to check head/side room, on the GT chassis there is plenty of room all around the intake side, the bonnet virtually sits flat on the top of the timing belt cover at the front of the engine though:

HP Fuel line layout

Space established, I need to decide on the lines from the swirl tank to the fuel rail. I have already decided (I think) to feed the OEM fuel pressure regulator at the front of the engine, and take the return from the rail at the rear via the cut down fuel rail tube.

Three options present themselves for routing the lines:

A. Take the line along the chassis tube and a gentle arc around the outside of the plenum: <- This
     I like this option - looks neat, no tight turns and leaves the other side of the plenum for wiring

B. Still take the line along the chassis tube, but inside the plenum line up to the regulator:

     Experience on RHOCar shows this option has been done before & known to be ok

C. Take the line across the top of the fuel rail and loop back to the regulator: <- Not this

     Unlikely option - the loop just looks messy 

The decision (between option A. & B.) will be based on any consensus from RHOCar & I may also ring GBS to check.

There seems to also be an issue with clutch cable routing - very tight under the plenum, will need checking before it is attached permanently.

Plenum prep

Before fitting I can do a couple of jobs on the plenum itself, fit my IAC Valve & fit the butterfly valve assembly. The IACV needs 3 holes, and needed to be in a location where I can get to the nuts on the back for assembly. I checked the location to make sure it would also miss the chassis tubes when installed.

Inside, lock nuts so should be little chance of losing them into the engine, and the second picture shows a glimpse of the trumpets on each intake:

Almost ready for fitting (needs the air temp sensor fitting too):

Update - later I opened up the main IACV air inlet hole on the plenum to be larger than pictured here and closer to the actual valve size, i.e. 16mm which lets the IACV have more control over the volume of air let in.

Alternator & Steering column

Alternator

Alternator mounted, I used a straightedge to line up the front pulley face with the crankshaft pulley - I'll double check when the engine actually turns over that its all aligned. It was easiest to take off the plenum & intake manifold adaptor to get at the alternator bolts:

Belt in place - possibly a little slack for now:
The star on the crank end bolt & the masking tape on the chassis rail were markers to align the engine.

Update - I should have cleaned off a little of the powder coat on the mounting brackets to ensure a good earth for the alternator. Remediated later with another earth line on the intake side of the engine.

Steering column

The steering column came out to drill the engine mounts - so now back in with the correct steering rack bolt which locks the column in place; it can't pull off the rack spline even if the nut came loose. Centred the rack beforehand.

Fuel rail re-work

I didn't like the fuel rail as it was, I also had some specific space issues at the rear end. This area has an engine loom plug, the plenum vacuum outlet and the end of the fuel rail - its really not practical to have the fuel pressure regulator here too:

I moved the OEM fuel pressure regulator to the front of the engine:

Then modified the original return pipe, shortened it and left enough to attach the high pressure fuel line to:

This is the result - I hope its a neater arrangement:

The plenum is only temporarily in place to align everything & let me see how much space there is.

Starter bolt chassis clearance & engine mounts

The lower bolt housing is very tight to the chassis, best advice was to file it back a little: Propped the engine on a block of wood to give room to work & used the Dremel sanding drum & a hand file:

Resulting position with the engine lowered:

Engine mounts

This allowed me to complete the engine mounts, bolting to the chassis:
4mm pilot holes followed by 8mm for the bolts.

Offside there is a problem - the top right bolt is so tight to the chassis rail I can't get the nut on underneath.. I need to think through some options:
    Re drill the bracket rotated a little clockwise <- This + shaped the nut to fit against the chassis
    -or- Use a spacer tube underneath with a longer bolt
    -or- Run with 3 bolts on the offside

Nearside is fine: